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Washington took action against Riyadh shortly after the US intelligence report that the Saudi crown prince had sanctioned the murder of Khashugazi.
Intelligence reports have blamed Mohammed bin Salman for killing dissident journalists, but the United States did not impose direct sanctions on him on Friday, Reuters reported.
A senior official in the Biden administration indicated that no sanctions had been imposed on the crown prince of Saudi Arabia to ensure that he maintained a working relationship with him.
He said the US move was aimed at re-evaluating the relationship, not cracking down.
In his campaign for the presidency last year, Biden vowed to reevaluate relations with Saudi Arabia; Observers said the intelligence report on Khashugazi’s assassination was followed by a series of measures to impose sanctions on Saudi citizens.
Critics have accused the administration of former Biden President Donald Trump of sanctioning one human rights violation after another in Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil producer.
In 2016, Jamal Khashugazi, a 59-year-old journalist inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, was killed by Saudi agents and his body disappeared. Although various intelligence agencies have claimed that the Saudi crown prince was responsible for the killings, Mohammed bin Salman has denied the allegations from the start.
The US Treasury Department on Friday banned Ahmed al-Asiri, the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, and the Rapid Intervention Force of the Saudi Royal Guard (RIF) in connection with the killing of Khashugazi.
The reef’s role in Khashugaji’s murder has come to light in a recently published US intelligence report.
“Those involved in the brutal murder of Jamal Khashugazi must be held accountable,” said US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.
Later, the United States imposed a visa ban on the Saudi citizen. The ban is part of a new policy by the Biden administration to crack down on countries that carry out activities against journalists and dissidents outside their borders, Reuters reported.
Officials said the ban could apply not only to those who have been banned, but also to their family members in some cases.
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